Leeds United Marcelo Bielsa favourite on lingering love, 2025/26 season performance and 49ers job

Daniel Farke's Leeds started the season well enough and then emerged from a mini rough patch to ease themselves away from the relegation zone with an impressive second half to their Premier League return. A 14th-place finish didn't tell the whole story because Leeds' performances were arguably worth more points but survival was the only aim last season as a newly-promoted side.

Watching on with interest from a short distance was Kalvin Phillips, who played a key role the last time Leeds came up from the Championship and survived handsomely. The defensive midfielder was part of Marcelo Bielsa's team when the Whites secured a top-10 finish in the Premier League, before his £42m move to Manchester City.

Leeds-born Phillips was back at Elland Road this week as a special guest in the East Stand's Hisense Lounge, alongside his former team-mate Patrick Bamford, to watch and analyse the England game against Ghana. The pair took part in a Q&A with Leeds fans and Phillips admitted that being born into a family of Whites supporters means he still feels the same about his old club. "Even though I'm not here now I feel the same feelings and connections as you Leeds fans do," he said.

What he saw from Leeds upon their top flight return impressed him even if, like his fellow Whites, he couldn't relax until safety was mathematically secure with three games to go. "It was little bit tighter than what I thought it would be, in the last 10 games, the business end of the season but I thought they did really well," he said. "They were what, seventh in the form table in the second half of the season, which is incredible. So they've done really well and I'm happy for the guys, happy for the city, happy for the club and I wish them well for next season."

Phillips experienced the first part of Leeds' decline after Bielsa's stellar first Premier League season but ultimately left the club with them still in the top flight. While the Whites were getting relegated in 2023 he was lifting the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup trophies, albeit having made just 12, three and four appearances in those competitions respectively. Since then Leeds have bounced back to the Premier League under Farke and Phillips has bounced around on loan with West Ham, Ipswich Town and Sheffield United. The Leeds United of today is a different one to the one he recalls fondly and he's praised the job 49ers Enterprises have done.

"When I was there obviously it was really good," he said. "We was finished the highest we had finished in the league for a long while, and I think things in football change and ownerships change, and for Paraag [Marathe, Leeds chairman] to come in and do what he's done, and for the ownership to come in and do what they've done it's amazing to see, and I think there's only been progression."

Phillips' hope is that he can once again progress in his career next season after a frustrating 2025/26 campaign that saw him miss the start of the season and the chance to go on loan through an Achilles injury. When he did finally get a January move to Bramall Lane he made three appearances and two starts before a red card and a knee injury ended his campaign in February.

When asked how he had found his time at Bramall Lane, where he reunited with Bamford, Phillips told the YEP: "It was all right, all two games of it. I suffered an injury which kept me out for the rest of the season, so that's been the problem for me the last three years of not playing regularly, it's made me acquire more injuries and stuff like that. So I'm looking forward to hopefully having a good season, actually."

Phillips has been linked to another spell with Chris Wilder's Blades in what will be the penultimate year of his contract at the Etihad.